with 200+ federalist society cultists placed on the federal bench by trump, not to mention all of the ones appointed by george w, that isn’t as safe a bet as it might once have been.
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why - are car is just another weapon
park your ground and all
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Will a shortened pump action 12 gauge do?
with apologies for long post, crossposting, etc…
Unpacking reasons in the U.S. why folks enlist in military service… I repeat, unpacking military servicemember motivations, not reasons why one becomes a cop.
https://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=soc
My brother joined the U.S. Army because he wanted to learn to fly aircraft, and was not in a financial position to pay to learn, pay to own an aircraft, etc. He was a helicopter pilot and fortunate to get in and out before Operation Desert Storm.
My [U.S.] East Coast nephew joined because he lived near New York City, and felt the U.S needed protecting. The U.S military did see an enlistment surge after 9-11.
My father-in-law joined because he was drafted to serve in the U.S.-Korean War.
My high school buddy joined because men in his family were expected to serve honorably.
My neighbor up the street is retired Army, and he’d give me the shirt off his back; he’s defended me in this neighborhood and stood up for me when people slag me behind my back.
I will not judge them. I have these people in my life. We don’t see things the same way, and sometimes we disagree(d). Yes, there are plenty of counterexamples of military servicemembers doing incredibly bad things and I don’t think a list of those is necessary. Mine is not the “a few bad apples” argument.
My argument is that vigilantism presages bad things, that the rule of law is in danger in the U.S. (I suppose twas ever thus given how unequal and selectively U.S. law as been historically applied), that there is a bright line that ought to separate law enforcement from military action, and that right-wing armed checkpointers seek to blur that line if not erase it entirely. (Ok maybe that’s several arguments.)
Some people enlist in the military because there are no jobs to be had where they live, they have no capital to start their own business, they may not have the job training they think they need, and no other solutions are forthcoming. They have decided they are unwilling to participate in “informal economies” which may or may not be legal. They are not in a position to pay for college and seek training for a job–say, being a mechanic–they hope to work once their service is complete, and are will to trade their time and possibly their lives in order to get that training.
Non-citizens join because they are implicitly or explicitly offered U.S. citizenship in return for military service. Sometimes the U.S. pulls out of the deal and these people are screwed over after their service.
In all cases, recruits who make it through bootcamp are trained to kill people.
I am not, and further, given my decades of ahimsa practice, I doubt my ability to ever go there even in extremis.
Agreed. There are plenty of us who even if a firearm was within reach would hesitate.
Desensitization and seeing the human one is about to shoot as a “less than [human]” are key. Some pave the way:
Gun ownership will not automatically remove one’s critical thinking skills. Behold:
I appreciate that this Swiss man, who like all Swiss citizens served a compulsory hitch in their nation’s military, has some constructive criticism re U.S. right-wing armed group behavior we now see openly.
Laws. What a concept.
Obeying laws. Wow. Another big concept.
Thank you, Mikko Lienonen, Swiss firearms expert.
Yes.
It seems “2A” rights groups are not fond of that part of the law as it is written. So I have a bone to pick with @frauenfelder re word choice here “Right-wing militia groups have set up armed illegal checkpoints in Oregon” …
…
Words have meaning.
The most troubling part here is the extent to which local law enforcement certainly appears to overtly endorse the actions of those vigilantes.
From the wikipedia entry, the phrase I am looking at is “can be called upon[by whom?] for military service.”
By whom, indeed.
The U.S. Constitution began its headlong full-tilt dissolution shortly after 9-11.
This groundwork was laid years ago, folks.
There’s work to do, if we want to live together peaceably.
Americans die and will die if we don’t do the work.
If you are not feeling equal to the task, you may be feeling your humanity talking to you.
The kindness in your own soul is the hesitation you may feel about drawing a firearms against another human, or where the U.S. is heading generally.
Do not believe that kindness can be weaponized against you. It is yours to own, and yours to employ. It is a tool “they” may choose to pick up, even if “they” are being fed hatred and lies through other information channels, you are still a living channel yourself.
My heart breaks for the United States of America. It breaks for those who think they are my enemies as much as it does for my friends. You still have your freedom, so use it. There are many groups organizing for both resistance and subsistence, but we are heading into dark times, and you need to be your own light. Do not accept brutality and cruelty as normal even if it is sanctioned. Protect the vulnerable and encourage the afraid. If you are brave, stand up for others. If you cannot be brave – and it is often hard to be brave – be kind.
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The revolution, as Fidel Castro pointed out, is an ongoing process. He understood that the change in mindset and culture required for a socialist society does not come overnight, it takes decades to manifest (and most „socialist“ states made sure that never happened, but I guess that is another discussion).
And TBH, the opposition’s ideas are rarely newer than those of the revolution 
Every failed American military activity for the past 20 years provides a degree of counter-argument to this, I’d submit.
It’s actually the combination of firearms and lots of people who have them that can be such a PITA for a big military — a military not designed to fight large insurgencies.
I used to see it the way you do. I no longer do.
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No, that’s not how civil war insurgencies work. The insurgent does not stand and fight the 81st Airborne, or the A10 or the drone. They find the family of the pilot, the child of the soldier, the mother of the drone operator and take them out. And if you just threw up in your mouth a bit, good. You are still human.
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You assume Trump would have all of the military hardware? I don’t.
And by the way — were those things done in the US Civil War? I must have missed it in the history lessons if so.
I think we can agree it’s a bullshit argument that exists because it has has political backing. But even the originalist manuals of regulations make reference to the nasty punishments handed out to those who flout the regulated regimes.
The US Civil War was not an insurgency as such, much closer to a war between nation states with well defined borders. There are no such things in the battle you postulate. If it were to occur (pray it does not) it would be rural vs urban, poor vs rich, quite literally neighbor vs neighbor. Hell on earth.
“It’s actually the combination of firearms and lots of people who have them that can be such a PITA for a big military — a military not designed to fight large insurgencies.”
This seems to set the stage as brave insurgents against a large military, yes?
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That’s one of the things I remember from the time of the Rodney King assault: a nonzero amount of officers in that precinct belonged to an explicitly white supremacist organization (e.g. the Klan). It should be zero, of course, but proportionally, more officers in that precinct belonged to the Klan (or whatever) than the population at large did*.
*(Of course, that’s about 30 years ago, and without getting into whether e.g. contemporary CPAC attendees are white supremacists etc.)
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The Klan was always pretty popular with police officers. At times you could be happy if there was a nonzero amount of offices in a precinct who were not members of the Klan.
If you haven’t already done so, you might want to listen to the awesome podcast Behind the Police, its a 10 hour deep dive into why the US police is so fucked up, and there is a lot about the all-too-intimate relationship between the Klan and the police.
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Every time I hear someone promoting armed revolution I tell them to look at pictures of Aleppo, because that’s what Chicago, LA, NYC etc. would look like.
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American civil rights progressed to the extent they did because of mass protest. India is not part of U.K. and so on.
You may say America lost in Afghanistan and Iraq because of the so called insurgents, but I would say it’s because America lost the argument with the masses over non violent things. Like disbanding the military and not paying them for instance.
We can respectfully disagree, because I do see the counter point. But I’m not buying weapons. I’m holding signs and talking to people.
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And we still have the Electoral College and the prisoner cut-out to the 13th Amendment which were both proslavery laws. So on so forth. You’re being a bit pizza-cutter for no discernible reason.
Well, it’s official, Trump can now appoint supreme court justice Roger Stone, so forget about what the constitutional amendments say.
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From what I’ve seen, pistol ammo is scarce, and becoming more expensive by the day.
Shotgun ammo seems to be widely available, though. Saw a bunch of it at Wally World the other day.
Re: rifle ammo… hope you have some spare limbs…
Joe Biden says yes
I missed that part. Him?
